Today, many electronic devices include memory systems that are used to store information (data) utilized by the devices. For example, some digital audio players include memory systems that are used to store digitized audio that may be played by the players. Likewise, personal computer systems often employ memory systems to store software utilized by the computer systems.
In many electronic devices, memory systems often comprise a controller and one or more memory devices. The controller typically contains circuitry configured to generate signals that are used to direct the memory devices to store and retrieve information. The memory devices typically store the information in memory that is contained in the memory devices. The memory may be volatile or non-volatile. A memory device that contains volatile memory often loses the stored information when power is removed from the device. A memory device containing non-volatile memory often retains the stored information even when power is removed from the device.
In certain conventional memory systems, data and control signals are transferred between the controller and memory devices in parallel using a parallel bus. Often, many wires are used to implement the bus and, depending on the layout of the memory system, the wires may extend for some length.